If you want to support the Maple Street Community Garden by writing letters to the state senators and assembly members who will be reviewing the bills introduced by Jesse Hamilton and Diana Richardson, here are some simple instructions, and you’ll find all the materials right here.

1) Personalize each of the two letters (one to assembly, one to senate) by adding your name and address and then, lower down, how you found out about the garden and how you use it (gardening, compost, relaxation, dog run, playground, etc.) and why you think the bill and the garden are important to the community. Sign your name for emails; leave the salutation blank

2) The bill has been referred to the Cultural Affairs committee. The head of the Committee is Richard Funke (funke@nysenate.gov). That’s the best person to email. Or if you can find a committee member who represents your district, definitely email that person. The committee lists give you the addresses of all the members of the Cultural Affairs committee. Their email addresses are live links that you can use by clicking on them. Copy your letter to that committee, add in the salutation for the senator or the assembly member you’re sending to, attach a copy of the appropriate bill and send.

3) If you can send your letter by USPS ,or prefer to do that, you’ll help us even more. After customizing the letter, print out enough copies of each and as many copies of the appropriate bill. Hand-write in the salutation and your signature. Stuff in an envelope with a copy of the appropriate bill, address the envelope, add a stamp, and mail

Sunday is going to be a great day for sending out letters to legislators, so if you haven’t gotten to this important task yet, please stop by Pels Pies (446 Rogers near Lincoln Rd.) between 1-3. We’ll buy you a non-alcoholic drink.

Bring your laptop or device if you can, because here’s the drill: we’re going to concentrate on emails to the members of the Senate Rules Committee to lobby for Sen. Hamilton’s bill S 6073 and to members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee to lobby for Assembly Member Richardson’s A 8569. We want to send to everyone on both of those committees, a total of 40+ legislators.

We will share a template letter for you to modify and also the address-listings for those two committees and both pieces of legislation, since we should attach the appropriate bill to each letter. The list of committee members has active links to their email account, so it will just be a matter of pasting in the template and customizing. Not hard, but boring. Even though we’re sending basically the same letter to all of them, it does take a little while to get them all out, so it’ll be more fun to be in good company, with good food available. We’ll be on hand to answer questions.

If this isn’t happening for you tomorrow, please do get these letters off on your own. The more people they hear from, the more seriously they’ll take us. And if you can print letters out and send them by USPS, they’ll take us still more seriously. To obtain the materials mentioned above, please emailtomlafarge@gmail.com.